Critique my build?

[druid91]

So I'm making a character and I'm not too good at it so could you tell me how I did? IT's Gestalt 20th level

Sheet here. (http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheetview.php?sheetid=308354)

NOTE: Except for one spell all are the free spells gained by wizards.

Any suggestions for spell purchases? Banned schools are Enchantment, Necromancy, and Abjuration*.

*Abjuration is banned at 11th level because of red wizard. Spells I had before then are fine, but I can no longer learn Abjuration spells.

Items? I bought a boccobs blessed book. (Ironic considering it's an evil character.)

[myancey]

Are you a 40th level character or 20th gestalt?

[druid91]

20th Gestalt Sorry.

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

I thought you couldn't take two Prc's at the same time in Gestalt.

Also on a slightly related note, I like that your Deity is Mephistopheles, I recently started reading Goethe's Faust and I love it so far.

[druid91]

I thought you couldn't take two Prc's at the same time in Gestalt.

Also on a slightly related note, I like that your Deity is Mephistopheles, I recently started reading Goethe's Faust and I love it so far.

Wasn't he mentioned by name in that?

Also I was not aware of that.

[myancey]

Wasn't he mentioned by name in that?

Also I was not aware of that.

Yeah, that's the sad truth..

SRD:


A gestalt character can’t combine two prestige classes at any level, although it’s okay to combine a prestige class and a regular class.

[druid91]

Yeah, that's the sad truth..

SRD:

Seems arbitrary and ridiculous.

EDIT: Talked to the DM about it. Apparently this is houseruled out, but we can take only two prestige classes total.

[herrhauptmann]

I'd drop the axiomatic and flaming burst from my weapon if I were you.
There's much better enchantments to spend your money on.
Smoking, free miss chances.
Valorous, double damage on charge

Can you squeeze in the feat Collegiate Wizard (back of Complete arcane I think)? It'll nearly double your spells known.

Level 20 at age 20? Wow, I mean I know it makes sense. 3.5 encounters a day. What, 15 encounters per level? So that means about 4 days per level? So about ~3 months to reach level 20 from 1. Sorry, it just makes my brain hurt when the ridiculousness of 3.5 gets shoved down my throat at times.

edit: Saw banned schools. Streamers is a great evocation spell that does damage. Magic of Faerun or Shining South...

[The Rabbler]

I wrote about 5 paragraphs in comments/suggestions and had it all lost because "server backup is in progress." consequently, my soul was crushed.

[herrhauptmann]

Did you try hitting the 'back' button? In some cases, that takes you back to the reply page, and MIGHT have your text still there. When that happens for me, I copy/paste it elsewhere adn wait for the server/database to come back.

Sorry to hear you lost everything, perhaps a quick summary?

[The Rabbler]

Did you try hitting the 'back' button? In some cases, that takes you back to the reply page, and MIGHT have your text still there. When that happens for me, I copy/paste it elsewhere adn wait for the server/database to come back.

Sorry to hear you lost everything, perhaps a quick summary?

unfortunately, I hit back when the server database backup was in progress and so I keep getting sent to the page telling me so.

as for a summary, I was asking what the OP actually wanted to do with his character, as leadership+stronghold+red wizard ususally means circle magic (ab)use, but the fighter half of the build is looking mighty lonely. I wanted to know what the OP planned for the character to do in and out of combat.

Before those answers, there are a couple of changes that should be made, however. Weapon focus/spec should be swapped out for leap strike and anything else (improved toughness if you can't find anything fun).

I wanted to know what disciple of darkness, evil brand, and dark speech all do.

I suggested quite a few additions to the spell list (the biggest ones being mirror image, displacement, dimensional lock, and phantom steed) and that all of the summon monster spells be removed from the spell list as well as simulacrum and dimensional anchor.

I also suggested a swap from fighter to maybe warblade (as it seems like you'll be spending combat swinging a sword) or factotum (to take advantage of the int synergy)

also, OP, you should probably swap your dex and con. You don't have anything other than AC that'll benefit from dex and most of your higher level HP comes from con.

beyond that, better weapon enhancements and a set of +1 (or more) soulfire feycraft thistledown padded mithril chain shirt as armor.

EDIT: also, there are quite a few little tricks in char-gen that can net you around 4 extra feats and things like that if you want to apply them.

[Ryu_Bonkosi]

Wasn't he mentioned by name in that?

Faust is where Mephistopheles originated from. In Goethe's tale, Mephistopheles makes a bet with God that if he can corrupt his favorite human then he will be let back into Heaven to boast of his success. It also (IIRC) is where the concept of 'selling your soul to the devil' originated from.

[herrhauptmann]

Rabbler,
Yeah, you make good points all around. Especially with the weapon focus/spec. Just the two feats together are worthless. Almost worth it with slashing fury, but not really. I assume you mean Leap Attack for the feat swap

Though I'll debate you on the armor purchase. Just a mithral chainshirt for 0 ACP and 0 ASF. Ditto for a mithral buckler. You're not really looking for the armor bonus they provide, but the enchantments they can carry. I don't think the armor bonus for thistledown also applies when you're wearing it as padding. So enchantments probably wouldn't be active either. But the DM might say otherwise.

Hunh, hadn't looked at the stats before, but those ARE odd. Definitely swap dex for con. At this level, AC is crap. Monsters will have +Yes to hit. Better to be able to survive the hit, or better yet, don't actually be there. Be casting from your own demiplane.

Dark speech sorta sucks. Relies on charisma, take charisma damage for each utterance. Use it on 'good' people of high level, and they have to attack you on sight. :( BoVD
Evil brand (bovd) and disciple of darkness are both prereqs. They don't do anything besides that really.

I know you seem to be committed to the evil mage warrior thing. But have you looked at any actual gish builds? You could go wiz//ftr for a while. Then wiz10/redwiz10//ftr6/swiftblade10/something4 (maybe rogue?) for instance. Swiftblade will let you do funny things with your haste spells, let you abuse action economy, and you can still get your 9th level spells, and thus epic casting. For instance, you can now get a Time Stop for the cost of a 6th level spell :)
A shame about the 2 PrC total thing. There's some more fun stuff we could get you otherwise. Also, look into the wizard alternate class features. Most of them swap your familiar for some overpowered ability. What is your wizard specialised in? I'm not seeing it...

[The Rabbler]

Rabbler,
Yeah, you make good points all around. Especially with the weapon focus/spec. Just the two feats together are worthless. Almost worth it with slashing fury, but not really. I assume you mean Leap Attack for the feat swap

that is indeed what I meant.


Though I'll debate you on the armor purchase. Just a mithral chainshirt for 0 ACP and 0 ASF. Ditto for a mithral buckler. You're not really looking for the armor bonus they provide, but the enchantments they can carry. I don't think the armor bonus for thistledown also applies when you're wearing it as padding. So enchantments probably wouldn't be active either. But the DM might say otherwise.
the difference is a point or two of AC. I figure at his level he might as well spend the extra 5k gold in case it makes the difference against a horde of tucker's kobolds on steroids. as far as enhancements: soulfire. ignore that it's in the BoED and get it anyway. it's amazing.


Hunh, hadn't looked at the stats before, but those ARE odd. Definitely swap dex for con. At this level, AC is crap. Monsters will have +Yes to hit. Better to be able to survive the hit, or better yet, don't actually be there. Be casting from your own demiplane.

I knew I forgot something. Astral Projection needs to go on the spell list too. This is also why I suggested Mirror Image and Displacement, as they're the only real defenses at high levels.


Dark speech sorta sucks. Relies on charisma, take charisma damage for each utterance. Use it on 'good' people of high level, and they have to attack you on sight. :( BoVD
Evil brand (bovd) and disciple of darkness are both prereqs. They don't do anything besides that really.

In that case, the OP should probably swap them out for more useful stuff.


I know you seem to be committed to the evil mage warrior thing. But have you looked at any actual gish builds? You could go wiz//ftr for a while. Then wiz10/redwiz10//ftr6/swiftblade10/something4 (maybe rogue?) for instance. Swiftblade will let you do funny things with your haste spells, let you abuse action economy, and you can still get your 9th level spells, and thus epic casting. For instance, you can now get a Time Stop for the cost of a 6th level spell :)
hmm... I'd go warblade into swiftblade instead of fighter. gets you more goodies early on. Maybe spirit lion totem whirling frenzy barb 1/factotum 1/fighter 2/warblade 2/swiftblade 10/warblade +4 with a feat spent on able learner for all skills as class skills forever? that'll get you IL 13 on a build that just dips warblade.


A shame about the 2 PrC total thing. There's some more fun stuff we could get you otherwise. Also, look into the wizard alternate class features. Most of them swap your familiar for some overpowered ability. What is your wizard specialised in? I'm not seeing it...
I think the wizard should be a conjurer and grab Abrupt Jaunt. Isn't there also an ACF that lets you trade wizard bonus feats for fighter bonus feats?

[druid91]

that is indeed what I meant.
the difference is a point or two of AC. I figure at his level he might as well spend the extra 5k gold in case it makes the difference against a horde of tucker's kobolds on steroids. as far as enhancements: soulfire. ignore that it's in the BoED and get it anyway. it's amazing.

I knew I forgot something. Astral Projection needs to go on the spell list too. This is also why I suggested Mirror Image and Displacement, as they're the only real defenses at high levels.

In that case, the OP should probably swap them out for more useful stuff.

hmm... I'd go warblade into swiftblade instead of fighter. gets you more goodies early on. Maybe spirit lion totem whirling frenzy barb 1/factotum 1/fighter 2/warblade 2/swiftblade 10/warblade +4 with a feat spent on able learner for all skills as class skills forever? that'll get you IL 13 on a build that just dips warblade.

I think the wizard should be a conjurer and grab Abrupt Jaunt. Isn't there also an ACF that lets you trade wizard bonus feats for fighter bonus feats?

The wizard is a conjurer, and before you go crazy on the fighter side, it's supposed to let me hit things. The wizard half is broken enough for both.

Why take out the summon monster spells? Simulacrum is needed for circle magic. Though dimensional anchor was a whim.

Astralprojection is necromancy one of my banned from the start schools.

[The Rabbler]

The wizard is a conjurer, and before you go crazy on the fighter side, it's supposed to let me hit things. The wizard half is broken enough for both.

while the wizard side is indeed strong, you should certainly think about changing that fighter side up a bit. It's just boring. You'll have plenty of fun outside of combat with your circle magic, your hordes of followers, and your dragon pet (speaking of which, have you built him yet?), but just fighter will end up being pretty monotonous. You're set up to be a fairly solid ubercharger, but charger builds are solidly tier 4. IMHO, you should focus that half of the gestalt tree on a strong melee half that'll also allow you to utilize your wizardly powah.



Why take out the summon monster spells? Simulacrum is needed for circle magic. Though dimensional anchor was a whim.

Summon Monster spells are okay, but unless you build your character around them, they aren't all that great of a use of a turn. Plus, they bog down combat like no other spell. I would keep one summon monster VII or VIII prepared and forget about the rest in favor of more utility-based spells.

Simulacrum is more easily done with a mirror mephit (for lower than level 17 castings). After that, you'd need to prepare it yourself. I'm assuming this character isn't starting out at 20, but I suppose it's entirely possible that it might. EDIT: after 16, you could always bind an efreeti and have it use it's wishes to copy simulacrum and make 3 copies of you in 3 standard actions.

dimensional anchor is absolutely terrible; it has too many chances to fail. Instead, pick it's older brother: dimensional lock. it gives much fewer options to the creature(s) being trapped.



Astralprojection is necromancy one of my banned from the start schools.
right.

though this does remind me, you should swap your banned schools from abjuration to evocation. The Shadow Evocation and greater version of the same spell makes dropping evocation almost completely harmless.